The boys are back in town

The Rangers are home from their European vacation, two losses, two points in hand, and undefeated.

They now get an obviously much-needed five days of practice before going to (ugh) Nassau Coliseum Saturday, then to Western Canada.

They have to find a left winger for that No. 1 line (if that line stays together), have to figure out how to stop taking so many mindless penalties, have to work on the power play (what’s new?) and eventually decide what six defensemen are going to be their regulars until, or if, Marc Staal comes back.

I’m planning on sauntering over to the practice facility this morning. If nothing changes, I’ll have some stuff here.

It would be nice if they worked on their transition game, and overall structure of the attack so that we don’t have to see all those pucks bouncing off the boards. But what do I know, maybe that’s the game plan… bounce it off the boards, dump it it, see what happens…

Man those fans out there are something else. When
the Jets finally scored a goal you’d have thought it was the winning goal from a cup finals. Those people have been so starved for a team for so long that they went absolutely Asiatic. It was a close hard fought game all thru, til the end when the Habs really ran up the score, but thinking about how the Atlanta fans and Arizona folks yawned their way through several seasons, you know that with Winnipeg they’ve hit pay dirt.
It was really heart warming to behold..

Work on the powerplay? Fix the first line? I thought Richards was the answer to both of those questions and why we paid him so much money.

In all seriousness, I didn’t like the signing and I’m yet to see anything from Richards, Gaborik, the 1st line in general, or the PP, either in the regular season or preseason that would make me consider changing my mind. I know it’s still early, but man, I would’ve rather they kept the money and kept building.

“IMO i think Torts has already had a neggative impact on both Stepan on Zucca… he takes what they do good, which is the creativity, and takes it away from them.. JUST PLAY HARD GUYS AND DO AS I SAY. Thats it for torts. He is not letting the creative players be creative.

He cut Averys balls off, Gabby looks awful under him, and two young players that were looking great in the early part of last season (stepan and zucc) were “molded” by torts into players that just go up and down the ice. This guy has sucked since he got here.

Oh, and how has DZ looked after being coached by Torts???? Anyone????”

And the more I think about it the more I think he is right. Tort discourages creative play.

Gaborik got here was a scoring machine, after a season under Tort his ability suddenly diminished. Same with Stepan, Frolov, Del Zotto, Parenteau, Gilroy, Avery, Drury, even Dubinsky is not allowed to rush the puck into the zone anymore, they just dump the puck in and go grind and cycle along the boards.

That’s a very well written piece, bob…Thought through and more than convincing. Whoever wrote this is a genius and I have no reasons to question his hockey knowledge and credibility. Thanks for sharing the masterpiece with us, bob….

Look – I think it’s high time we give up on having an effective Power Play. It seems like such a simple thing. Just tell the guys that when you have the puck MOVE YOUR FEET. Find slots or pass. They should have a stopwatch in practice and just time how long people are holding the puck for on the PP and they should try and limit people to no more than 3-4 seconds. If after 3 seconds you have nothing PASS THE PUCK.

The Ducks game was a real killer because man-oh-man did they just take away the middle of the ice. Never once were we able to use their players as a screen. The Ducks are good and they have good Defense but I still think if our guys would MOVE THEIR FEET and cycle and rotate and get the other guys to move just a few glides away from parking themselves in shooting lanes we might have had a few more shots get through.

I actually thought Del Zotto was having an OK game until he decided to mindlessly skate into his own end with the puck while trailed by some Ducks. That was absolutely moronic.

Does anyone feel like focusing on the positives? Hank looks incredible as always. Brad Richards appears to be the real deal. Gaborik scored a goal, has looked slightly more aggressive AND has been using a nice quick release. Callahan plays like a CAPTAIN (and as someone said – took less than three periods to tie the old captain’s goals for all of last year). McMonster looks legit still. Sauer looks tough (even without his helmet). Come on! Positives!

I really have no desire to get into Tortorella conversation again. I find it useless. But I do find it entertaining to an extent. None of us is in the hockey business. We are all fans. Some of us know more about hockey than others, but none is professional. I do find it entertaining that amateurs think that the most winningest US born coach with SC on his resume, the one whose name routinely gets called to coach our national team, the one who some of the most prominent players mention as being responsible for their stellar careers, CAN NOT COACH. He is a BAD COACH.
Entertaining, indeed….Adds a ton to your credibility.

Stepan had a great rookie season. He went from a college schedule of about 35 games to an NHL 80+ game season and adjusted well.
To say that Torts had a “neggative” (spelled incorrectly on purpose for emphasis) impact on him is silly and unsupported by stats or observation.

don’t bother, ilb. you can’t change the minds of those with man-crushes on Avery. Anybody who’s watched this team for the last year plus and whose view isn’t skewed by Avery love knows what’s going on with this team’s direction.

I’m sure Torts is telling the guys on the PP to go out there and be hesitant with the puck and not score goals. I mean that’s got to be only explanation right?

As someone that generally believes that the impact of coaches is usually overstated it’s probably better to start placing the blame on the players. And beyond that sometimes a 5 man unit clicks and sometimes it doesn’t. Look at the year on year performance of the Caps between 2 years ago and last year. They went from about 25.25% conversion to 17.50% with the likes of Backstrom, Ovechkin, Semin, Green, et al. The Pens were below league average on the PP in 08-09 and 09-10 (excluding last season because of the injuries, where they were far below league average).

But most importantly, 2 games into the season is way too early to draw any sort of conclusion about what’s working and what’s not. Remember the great starts in 08-09 under Renney and 09-10 under Torts? I’d hold off on planning parade routes or writing obituaries at this point.

Definitely too early to either write this team off or shovel praise on them. There are some positives to take away and there are some negatives, that go back to last season or earlier and are therefore allowed to be talked about since this team had an entire offseason to fix it.

it’s also not like they were horrible in the two games and blown out. They went to OT twice, and a lack-of-skills competition once. Got two points, same as if they’d beaten LA 8-0 and lost to Anaheim 1-0. A bunch of them played pretty well. Some didn’t. Geez, talk about rush to judgment.

Also the Rangers were a tick above league average in 2009-10 on the PP and based on the number of PP opps they had last season vs the league average conversion rate they were a whopping 3 goals under league average (49 out of 290 actual vs 52 out of 290 league average equivalent). I’m going to guess that over the long run they’ll converge on the league average which has hovered around 18% the last few seasons.

Last season, the Rangers had 2 points after the first two games – the same as this year. Can we draw conclusions from this? Absolutely not! It’s way too early.

Early observations: Gaborik seems to be playing with more energy than most of last year; The defense, absent Staal, has been better than expected; Hank has been great (his glove hand seems better). On the other hand, Christensen is a complete zero; Wolski is not much better, and the constant line shuffling HAS GOT TO STOP!! Will Boyle and Prust start to score like they did last year? Time will tell.

The real test will come in November, when we will see if they can avoid their annual November doldrums.

Screw that Carp! Throw in the towel…seasons over!
Torts sucks…
Richards sucks…
Gaborik sucks…
Malik sucks…
Renney sucks…
Bob, how the hell did you think that was a comment worth re-posting on Rangers Rants and here?

Do not believe the coach is the problem with this team, but question the in game strategy of mixing lines in Games 1 & 2. I thought that is what pre-season was for. They play 80 games and we need to get some mo-jo going. Understand all coaches do it and we do not have the necessary personnel, but still…

Hoping Artie turns the corner a bit more this season as Step is being wasted and happens to be around the puck every shift. Artie can disappear for stretches which will neutralize the advantage of having a strong #2 line or at least 2 strong forwards.

Why not Artie on Line 1 as LW? He’s a lefty, can play 2 ways and has good hands… That keeps Line #3 (Prust/Feds/Boyle) together and puts Step up to All USA line #2 between Capt/Dubi.

If anything blame management for arranging all those games and only two (if the Riche quote from Brooks is correct) training sessions in Europe.

The positives are that we didn’t allow many goals (Hank very good, defense ok/good). Maybe, just maybe, the coach can do a little more when he has all of his players on the ice and running some sessions. Seams logical to focus on D first and then offensive structure/PP + transition.

Stepan needs more ice time. This was one of the key reasons I was against the Richards signing. I think this kid has a lot of talent and his development is going to stagnate while he rots on the 4th line. At the very least, he should be getting a shot at the 1st line wing. He worked well with Gaborik at times last year. Why doesn’t he get that opportunity again instead of burying him with Rupp and MZA?

Doodie
agree 100% on Stepan. He will certainly have a sophomore slump on the 4th line.
Wolski and Christensen both show very little. I can’t figure out why Newbury got Whaled…I thought he was far better than Avery, Christensen and Wolski….and far better to log 4th line minutes than Stepan.

bob, I think you’re just fine. I can understand why people have their problems with Torts. I disagree with the reasoning, especially the Avery thing, but I understand it just fine. I don’t think you’ll see anyone on here for the quality of Eminger or Christensen. Honestly, I would be happy to see off both players. I thought Bell looked better than Eminger in the preseason, and there are a lot of better options for a fourth liner than EC, including the departed Dale Weise or the Whaled Kris Nebury and John Mithcell.

If we all agree that Eminger and Christensen suck, than what does it say about Tort for having them on the team? If we can see that they suck and he cannot, doesn’t that mean something is not right about him?

My problem with the 4th line is normally with most teams its your energy line. The line to go out and bang bodies, and create some momentum/energy. Christensen/Wolski hit nothing. In fact they shy away from hits and contact. Poor 4th line choices in my opinion. MZA hits more than both of them.

one thing I don’t understand. I read that vancouver liked Dale Weise out of the draft and came knocking on Sather’s door last year to see if he was available and Sather lets him go for nothing. Am I missing something here?

“one thing I don’t understand. I read that vancouver liked Dale Weise out of the draft and came knocking on Sather’s door last year to see if he was available and Sather lets him go for nothing. Am I missing something here?”

Can’t believe all the negativity after 2 games. They played well enough to beat the Kings and not well enough to beat the Ducks and got 2 points – exactly what they deserved. Our 2 SO specialists, Peewee and Zucs, had clear opportunities to score in the SO and we could be here all smiles with 3 points. Is it that close between what defines success and failure for everybody here?

Very few teams in history, if any, didn’t have anything to work on after 2 games. IMO, Dubinsky and Fedetenko are the only two LW of the team with the skill type needed to play in the top line. Gaborik already looks more involved than he did at any point last year. Just a short matter of time before things start to click there.

Ducks were smart to rush Richards on the PP and not give him time to set things up. Again, just a matter of time before Richards starts moving the puck down low to counter that. PP will be better with Richards. I’m actually more impressed with his puck skills than I thought when only seeing him a few times a year.

The extra minutes going to McDonagh, Del Zotto, and Erixon with Staal out will only benefit their depth on defense through the long haul. I thought that more minutes in CT would have been best for Erixon but I’m also happy that he’s showed enough to stay. Since they easily can be conservative with him, I’m trusting Tort’s is feeling comfortable that Erixon can learn and contribute on the NHL level.

Things are good here and even better than the good has been in a while.

Morning ILB and all!
Carp
Anyone show up yet? Any paint left on the walls?

IMHO I think gabby played well in Europe and was one of the better ranger forwards. He was physical and forechecked well!!

I don’t think torts is infoulable (is that even a word?), but he has done a good job and has been the best coach since Campbell. I do think some of the disjointed play in the first couple of games (albeit after a long and eventful european trip) is his fault. He is afterall the coach, and he does have some responsibility for how the team performs!

My guess is that Christensen and Wolski are two typical coach killers. That is, they show a lot of talent and probably do incredible things in practice. Then you get them in a real game and……nothing. You hate to sit (or get rid of) a player with “all that talent” but there needs to come a time when you take production over potential.

Remember, they got Christensen as a waiver pickup and Wolski in a bum-for-bum trade so other teams have made that decision on these two guys.

Funny entries above. Some guys are suicidal. Others are trying to make chicken salad out of chicken sht.

I like to think we just played two games in outer space and saw glimpses of both sides of the story.

In no particular order I will address a few things:

1) Zook, Wolski, Christensen….I stand by my thought that keeping them over Avery was a mistake. Those guys don’t come to play every night. They just don’t. You’ll never convince me otherwise. If the game is tight checking and involves some size, forget about Zook and the others. In the playoffs, those 3 are useless. Maybe Avery isn’t the answer, but I have one pick of those 3 plus Avery to fill a role, I take Avery. There’s a reason Christensen was a waiver pickup. There’s a reason Zook led the Swedish league. There’s a reason Phoenix dumped Wolski. Say what you want but Avery’s path has been jaded for a lot of reasons OTHER than hockey.

2) Gaborik, Richards, Avery…still cannot figure out why that wasn’t at least given a shot.

3) MDZ…given how many young D-men we have playing and in the system, we should trade this kid while he still has some value. I know it sounds like sacrilege cuz he is so young, but I am sorry. He is an arrogant little prick. That loop back into the zone from the redline? What is this, pond hockey? And does everyone see how nearly every time it gets physical around MDZ he does some jump and spin like, “Oh no, don’t hit me.”

4) Eminger is useless. Can anyone explain to me how many goals get scored from the corner below the goal line? Why did we have 2 d-men go into that corner and leave the slot?

5) Hank is the man.

6) Dubi-Arti-Cally should be the line. Period.

7) Our PP…like Manny above said…move the feet, move the puck. How frickin hard is it? We get the puck in the zone and everyone tripods, waiting for the puck. What is that? And do we have any other attack plan than dump-n-chase on the PP? Teams stand us up at the blue line and that is where it ends.

8) Stupid penalties. On the good side, our PK looks sharp. On the bad side, these stupid penalties are going to be our Achilles heal this year. We’ll see if Torts makes anyone accountable. Likely not.

9) Brian Boyle is not a winger. Stop doing the square peg, round hole thing. Game 2 and we are already making stupid line substitutions. Note to Torts: Avery is a winger. Comes to play every night. Guys on the other team notice when he is on the ice.

It’s a long season and it’s game 2. But Torts’ team after 2 games shows no discipline, no real game plan, and a lack of cohesion. We need Staal back to stabilize our D-zone. Maybe we build it out from there. But if Staal is out for a prolonged time, all bets are off.

bob, I don’t think Torts is blameless in that at all, but I think he is trying to keep the parts around until he figures out what to do with top line LW. Once he has that figured out, he can start putting the other pieces together. I’ll say this though: Feds is not working out on the 2nd line.

I’m not even down on the team because of the losses. I’m down about how the PP looks awful, how our defense is frighteningly shallow without Marc Staal, and how all of our lines are still totally unsettled.

I agree with you on Torts…a prime example of his mis use of players was the treatment of Gilroy. Always filling in on the off side from which he’d been accustomed to play, and then only when someone else was out of the game. He didn’t have that as a regular position…he was sort of an “irregular” regular. But he gave insights as to what he could be in last years playoffs. Now he;s got a regular spot with the Bolts on right defense side and he;s been flying.

Haven’t commented here in a while but it’s comforting to see that not much has changed. Just like not much changes on the ice (anemic offense, non existent powerplay, Hank carrying the team). When does Bob get fitted for his new straitjacket?

So in all seriousness, this isn’t the end of the world. The Ducks and Kings are both good teams. I believe the Rangers played many more exhibition games over there in Europe than both of those teams did.

We did look flat to start both games and we played far from great, but considering the circumstances I liked how we at least found a way to get a point in both games.

The thing that does worry me is the defense. Without Staal, we are really hurting back there. Erixon definitely needs some time in Hartford. McDonagh has been great so far, but I’d much rather see him with Sauer (especially since Sauer still isn’t 100% and those two just play great together). Eminger is who we think he is, a servicable 7th man who can jump in when needed and be decent, but nothing special. DZ is still a WIP. Torts doesn’t have a problem with him taking chances, it’s just a matter of picking his spots on when to do it. He tried to do the right thing when he tried to regroup into our own zone, but he didn’t notice that 2 Ducks players were still back there and he should’ve just chipped it out and gone for the change.

I think Torts is waiting for Wolski to be healthy so he can slot him up top with Gabby and Richards. Realistically, he’s the best fit there because A) it’s his natural position B) he can actually hold the puck pretty well, and C) he has the most experience being a top 2 line winger. With Richards passing and him and Gabby getting open, I can see him doing well there as he can be a PPG guy (not saying he will be).

Also, could you imagine if we could take Christensen’s shot/playmaking ability and put it in Callahan’s body? It’s such a shame he wastes his talents like that.

GerryD – I was just about to ask if anyone was following the Betts saga. Apparently, Betts was injured and failed his physical, though the Flyers don’t necessarily think he was. Holmgren is having doctors check him again.

Even when I first learn and posted about Betts situation, not knowing inside story, I was stunned by ridiculousness of it. Now I’m telling you it is a real shame, particularly in his case. I understand, the guy is professional and paid for it and all that, but he was taken a severe beating for teams for almost minimum NHL salary during all his career with no complains and didn’t deserve to be treated like useless garbage, regardless of so called business necessity. We are so touched and praise (rightfully so) hockey organizations about their charities and community works, but what happened with human touch about treating players themselves. I liked this guy very much, when he was a Ranger, always humble, very good teammate, extremely useful in PK, with great “sacrificial bone” in his body and character and I’m very upset and bitter with this situation which probably will cost him career (being just 31). SHAME!

Yea – Fantasy ruins everyone’s loyalty for their favorite team. This is my problem with fantasy. This is also my first year playing fantasy and I must say, I fell victim to it rather quickly in baseball. I am no better.

As a fantasy player in football and now for the first time hockey, I can safely say I have never fallen victim to supporting a player on the other team or rooting against my own guy except in leagues where money was involved. Me and winning money is more important that the Giants winning a game.

Just my quick and short impression:
Islandorks looked very fast in transition. Usual suspects – Tavares and Moulson in a surprisingly good shape. Could spell a problem comes Saturday.
Debbies picked, where they left at the end of season + Parise. Don’t expect miracle – it is different team than was at the beginning of last. Hopefully will have a problem in a goal – both Marty and Hedberg doesn’t look great.